Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are at a high point, as the
Islamic Republic threatens to close off a vital waterway and two U.S.
aircraft carrier battle groups sit in the seas off the Iranian coast.
But across the Persian Gulf, the U.S. has a previously unacknowledged
weapon in reserve: a new special operations team.

Danger Room has confirmed with the U.S. Special Operations Command
that a new elite commando team is operating in the region. The primary,
day-to-day mission of the team, known as Joint Special Operations Task
Force-Gulf Cooperation Council, is to mentor military units belonging to
the U.S.’ oil-rich Arab allies, who collectively are known as the Gulf
Cooperation Council. Those Arab states consider Iran to be their primary
foreign threat.

The task force provides “highly trained personnel that excel in
uncertain environments,” Maj. Rob Bockholt, a spokesman for
special-operations forces in the Mideast, tells Danger Room, and “seeks
to confront irregular threats.” The U.S. military has not previously
acknowledged the existence of the team, known as JSOTF-GCC for short.

The unit began its existence in mid-2009 — around the time that the Iranian leadership rejected President Obama’s offer of a new diplomatic dialogue and underwent a serious internal challenge to its legitimacy from Green Movement protesters. But whatever the task force does about Iran — or might do in the future — is a sensitive subject with the military.